Abandonment & Dismemberment

 This week, Dr. Mario Beatty, who is an Associate Professor in the Department of Afro American Studies at Howard University, was our guest speaker. In May 2008, he became the first African American to present a paper at the Tenth International Congress of Egyptologists in Rhodes, Greece. One of the foremost American students of Ancient Egyptian Language of his generation, Beatty has also mastered Hieratic, Demiotic and Coptic language, enabling him to conduct translations of texts that stretch between the nearly three thousand years of classical African history.

The Middle Passage

      Dr. Beatty discussed the Middle Passage. During 1492-1776 there were 6 ½ million people in the New World; 5 out of 6 were African. Africans were dispersed all over the Americas from Jamaica to the Caribbean.  
      We discussed the narratives of loss and emptiness.                               
 "When you are conceptualized as empty, you are filled with everything you encounter."- Mario Beatty.


      
    When our ancestors were brought to the Americas, they lost their culture and language. However, as throughout out history, they adapted. They practiced  Christianity because it was the Europeans religion. Africans took what they already knew about their God, and incorporated it into their faith in the New World.


Although many people try to denounce slang, it goes back to slavery. It was the only way our people knew how to communicate. Blacks were not allowed to get an education; our intelligence was a weapon against the enemy. 
   Many Africans created maroon communities, where the African culture was still intact. Europeans did their best to break them up.        



   The most important lesson of the lecture was that we must know our history, and conduct research on African history. If we don't take the initiative to do it, no one will.